As Himachal Pradesh votes to elect the new Chief Minister of the state today, Google India paid tribute to Shyam Saran Negi, the first voter of independent India from Kinnaur, who cast his franchise for the 34th time for the Himachal Assembly Elections. He cast his vote through postal ballot for the very first time at his residence in Kalpa on November 2 before expiring on November 5 (Saturday).
The over 2 minute video shared on Twitter and captioned "Remembering Mr. Shyam Saran Negi, the first Indian Voter, who taught us that nothing can stand in the way of our biggest duty as a citizen," opens with Negi telling some children how due to extreme weather conditions polling in Kinnaur was scheduled 6 months prior, and he braved inclement weather to go to the polling booth and cast his vote to become the firs voter of independent India.
He then speaks about how he felt a sense of pride while casting his vote, and since then has never missed exercising his franchise even once.
Negi cast his vote on 25th October 1951 for the first time during the first general elections that were held after British rule. He has cast his vote in every election since then. The first general elections were supposed to be held in February 1952, but, due to heavy snowfall in Kinnaur, elections were held six months earlier.
Shyam Saran Negi was a teacher at Kinnaur's Moorang School at that time and he was assigned election duty that day. He reached the polling booth station early morning while the election duty team reached at 6:15 am. Negi asked permission to vote so that he can return to his duty and thus he became the first voter of independent India.